president obama tries everything we can to get the attention away from the obama care, anything. today he went back to his old stand by, the rich. for more on the president's remarks about, quote, income inequality, end quote, let's bring in nbc's own steve handelsman. steve. >> reporter: larry, thanks. this was president obama trying to refocus on helping the middle class that he said relative to the rich was in a long, slow slide from the 1970s and seemed to be doing better when housing and wall street got super hot six years ago. >> when the music stopped and the crisis hit, millions of families were stripped of whatever cushion they had left, and the result is an economy that's become profoundly unequal. >> mr. obama in professor mode had stats. america's top 10% now earn half of all u.s. income, up he said from 1/3. ceos he said used to make 20 to 30 times what workers do, now he said make 273 times more and the top 1% of americans who have net worts now 288 times what a typical u.s. family has. >> that is a dangerous and growing inequality and lack of upward mobility that h